


Apple of My Eye

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Marvel Spookytober Prompts 2019 [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel 1872
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, Happy Ending, Internalized Homophobia, Irish Steve Rogers, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 06:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20925932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: This time of year had scared him as a kid, as it had scared many kids.It was strange then that Steve had welcomed it with open arms this year rather than worrying how the colder weather would mean supplies would be tighter or that sicknesses would begin to spread with fervor again.





	Apple of My Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [only_more_love](https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_more_love/gifts).

>   
[{Join me for the spook}](https://marvelspookytoberprompts.tumblr.com/post/188006745165/click-to-see-a-better-quality-of-the-prompts)  

> 
> A long, long, embrassingly long time ago I said I'd write Only something and thus I have now delivered. I hope this meet your original prompt of something soft. Day 6 - Apple Bobbing
> 
> Also 1872 canon CANNOT hurt you here. MCD whomst? Canonical sad times? I don't know them. / also note I haven't actually *read* 1872 so if some things are off, bear with me, but the spook it called and I just had to deliver.

This time of year had scared him as a kid, as it had scared many kids.

Told by their parents about how spirits would walk the lands, and if you weren’t careful, if you didn’t take certain protections that misfortune and even death could fall down upon you.

There were many tales about Samhain, and while Steve wasn’t an overly suspicious fellow he was inclined to believe a few of them just might be better to believe in anyways lest you invite in more trouble.

It was strange then that Steve had welcomed it with open arms this year rather than worrying how the colder weather would mean supplies would be tighter or that sicknesses would begin to spread with fervor again.

Then his best friend he thought was dead was not dead, and then the lawless men making Timely a mess had all dropped like flies and with them caused no more causalities. The story had ended happy, like of the fairy tales his ma used to tell him to soothe him back into bed on long nights.

It seemed too good to be true, and yet all the evidence was in front of him.

They wouldn’t have been having this little get-together to say goodbye to summer’s end and usher in the darker half of the year. It was a mish-mash of events, some that Steve recognized and some that he didn’t reflecting the makeup of their entire town so that no one felt left out.

One that most of them seemed to be familiar with was apple bobbing. Tony had heard of it, but never had the chance to partake in it during his former life so had suggested taking a crack at it. For one seemingly in a good mood without the assist of alcohol, thankfully.

For someone who had never once done it in his life, Tony had bitten into the apple with only a sparse few tries before he emerged wet but victorious with the apple in his mouth.

There were sounds of clapping and merriment around the room at that.

“You know, I’m pretty sure there’s something about the first person biting into the apple being the next person to marry.” Natasha said at his side in an instance, he couldn’t help a slight jump at that.

Steve had never understood how a woman with such striking hair could appear and disappear like that, sneaking up on even fully trained men who were meant to see this sort of thing coming. Bucky had complained to him that she always got worse about it this time of year.

That it was her way of joining in on the festivities by giving everyone a good scare.

She had succeeded but more with her words rather than in her sudden appearance because, he was familiar with that belief. Typically more reserved for unmarried woman, sometimes straying from that but Steve was fairly confident in no such readings did it say anything about marrying a man.

It wasn’t entirely a secret, the relationship between him and Tony. Tony had… well, not taken well at all to his brush with death. His reaction alone had been a dawning moment for a few folks that either seen it or were told of it and many of them had drawn the right conclusion that there was something going on between him and Steve.

Which they had been slightly wrong about as they hadn't been together at that time but it wasn’t like Steve could argue that point, when they well, had to exist like they weren’t really what they actually were. Some folks weren’t going to take kindly to that at all, and Steve could only drive so many people out of town before it began a ghost town.

But then there was a second hidden fear, that this was just a passing fancy for Stark.

That Tony wasn’t serious about him and would eventually settle down with a nice woman. Steve know ideally that would be better for the both of them, that eventually two grown man spending that much time around each other with no wives to speak of would draw in rumors, the kind that were harder to kill.

Steve might be able to get away with he was married to the law, and that he was too concerned something might happen to a lover of his, but when Tony wasn’t drunk, or well, even when he was, he was a charming and smart with a handsome face.

Eventually some woman would be able to look pass all that and make an offer if Tony wouldn’t make one himself.

Sometime during his internal monologue, Natasha had cozied up to her husband’s side looking very happy. Ever since Bucky’s own presumed death, she had been less guarded and more willingly to be open around her husband regardless of who was around them.

A real change from before where Natasha’s affections were often discreet things that only changed when she was in company that she trusted.

“I think if you keep staring at your friend’s wife like that, you might end up in a fight.” Tony said, looking smug and then joining Steve in the little corner he had claimed during the celebration, somewhat sectioned off from the others. Private. Tony offered him a half-eaten apple.

“You’ve started more fights than me.” Steve countered, finishing off the apple for Tony because he never could suffer any waste. He assumed it would look practical rather than an intimate moment even if he could see that context by eating after each other like that.

“I think that’s debatable.” Tony did usually think everything was up for debate, it made the man incredibly frustrating sometimes. Then again, it wasn’t like Steve could speak when he was as equally stubborn. “So, I was thinking if I shave my face, and ask Nat if I can borrow some of her clothes, then we can probably find a preacher that I’ll marry us.”

The apple fell out of Steve’s hand, he was suddenly very grateful he had finished it and wasn’t still eating it or he would have choked and drawn a lot of attention to himself. He’d have to pick that up later but right now he couldn’t just not stare at Tony with the audacity or authenticity of what he just said.

“What? I could probably be mistaken for a woman. We could always get the preacher a little drunk though, wouldn’t hurt.”

“…keep your mustache, I like it.”

“Going to get need a whole ton of alcohol for the gig to work if I keep it on, though.” Tony raised an eyebrow clearly skeptical.

“We don’t… we don’t need something like that. I’m sure we can promise ourselves to each other another way.”

“Well, not in the eyes of the law, but…” Tony shrugged. “Well, not your branch of law, at least. But I wouldn’t mind that, I’m a blacksmith after all, I could probably make something.”

“Something discreet.” Steve suggested, still seeing the need for being practical given these times.

“So a no, to matching cuffs. Damn, here I thought I could make our mutual love of tying me up more obvious.”

Steve couldn’t help it, he laughed heartily and loud as if he were drunk, because it was such a Tony thing to say and it really cemented that he loved this man. That he was always going to love this man, and he couldn’t think of anything better to do than find a way to bind himself to him for the rest of his life.

“Say, Sheriff, what do you say we leave a little bit earlier, I feel like there’s a crime in process.”

“Oh?” Steve asked. “How might that be?” 

“Give me a five minute head start and I’ll think of something that give you a good enough excuse to come after me.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna chat, I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thiefoftruth26).


End file.
